Amidst tremendous showing from the other athletes in the other events, Canadian men ice-hockey team came up way too short in this Winter Olympics at Torino.

As the defending champs, Canada failed to even get in the medal round, after losing 2-0 to its cold-rival Russia in the quarter-finals. A team that comprised of a collective player salary (in the current NHL season) in excess of $90M, failed to score in 11 of its last 12 periods. This team's forwards have already scored more than 280 goals in the current NHL season.

A hugely disappointing campaign this has been for the men's team. Quite a contrasting performance from 2002 in Salt Lake City and The World Cup a couple years ago in Toronto. It was simply heartbreaking, and watching the women's team expectedly thrash and bang and overpower their way to the Gold medal barely gives some consolation.

Carte Blanche

February 23, 2006, 10:12 AM

Wooo I loved that game. Russia thrashed Canada :D Go Finland!!

To make matters worse for you, the Maple Leafs are out of play-off spot as of olympic break ;) Ahh good times!

so you really dont have any liking for Canada, yet to deem yourself as a Vancouver Canucks fan! hmm... or, did I misunderstand your sarcasm ?

Originally posted by Carte Blanche
To make matters worse for you, the Maple Leafs are out of play-off spot as of olympic break ;) Ahh good times!

The Leafs are made for playoffs... go ahead and bash me come April if the Leafs dont find themselves in the postseason. And mind you, I will be laughing my a$$ off when the Canucks will be left out of the Western playoff-bound teams' list after 82 games! :P Although I would love a Leafs-Canucks Stanley Cup matchup more than anything else! There you go, some irony for you to ponder upon! :lol:

Carte Blanche

February 24, 2006, 04:54 AM

Originally posted by MasterBlaster
Originally posted by Carte Blanche
Wooo I loved that game. Russia thrashed Canada :D Go Finland!!

so you really dont have any liking for Canada, yet to deem yourself as a Vancouver Canucks fan! hmm... or, did I misunderstand your sarcasm ?

Originally posted by Carte Blanche
To make matters worse for you, the Maple Leafs are out of play-off spot as of olympic break ;) Ahh good times!

The Leafs are made for playoffs... go ahead and bash me come April if the Leafs dont find themselves in the postseason. And mind you, I will be laughing my a$$ off when the Canucks will be left out of the Western playoff-bound teams' list after 82 games! :P Although I would love a Leafs-Canucks Stanley Cup matchup more than anything else! There you go, some irony for you to ponder upon! :lol:

My liking for the Canucks has nothing to do with Canada. I just love that team. My 2nd and 3rd teams are Buffalo and Carolina. My team is Finland. 2nd is Czech, and 3rd would be Canada. Camada's position in Hockey is like that of Australia in Cricket. So it's good to see someone beat them bad ;)

As for the Canucks' playoff chances, I won't be a bandwagoner and rant about our supremacy. We are in a really bad shape now, but we will still make the playoffs. Unfortunately we may get knocked out in the round 1 or two. Our team is scarred by many injuries already. To make matters worse both our top two defencemen who are playing for Sweden and Finland respectively, got injured during the Olympics. We've been playing the season without our #1 goalie who was injured out for the rest of the season. 2 centremen were out with broken jaws and shoulders. Another defenseman for Team Canada had to leave the olympics team because of a knee injury. The captain's been playing with a groin injury for dozen games just for the sake of the team. He was advised to undergo surgery, but he is trying to pull off an Imran Khan. So ya, that sums about it. We don't stand a chance at the cup this year. The season did start great for us as a fresh team though. We were no. 1 in western conference with multiple wins over detroit and all. But now we're in doldrums.

On a brighter note, we did beat Toronto this season in our only match ;) As a matter of fact you guys get the games easy out in the east. We have to play in a division with Flames, Oilers, Avalanche and the Wild - a division all critics call the division of death, where every single point has to be fought to death for. It's no surprise that the Canucks have a 9-1 record against the Eastern Conference this year (only loss was against a Martin Brodeur shut-out).

Tigers_eye

February 24, 2006, 09:36 AM

scoreless in 11 of 12 periods. US didn't do well either. I am not sure if any American sports icons understand playing for his country and giving it all (except the original Dream team, may be the Tennis players and Golfers can be included). In Football (soccer), Hockey (field hockey), Cricket etc there is a national pride involved. Too much money allows Kobe and others to sit out a world championship. NHL Hockey Players are like that too. To them it's just another game.